Q&A with NBA commissioner Adam Silver

(Associated Press) New NBA commissioner Adam Silver poses with Gastonia's Hassan Whiteside after he was a second-round pick of the Sacramento Kings in the 2010 NBA draft

By Richard Walker

Published: Monday, March 24, 2014 at 07:37 PM.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver came to Monday’s Houston at Charlotte game. Here’s the transcript from his news conference with Charlotte-area media, courtesy the Bobcats Communications Dept.

Silver:

Opening statement: I’m thrilled to be here. I just got down here about an hour ago. I think many of you know I went to college in North Carolina (Duke) and I spent a lot of time down here over the years. It’s great to see this operating on all cylinders. I had a meeting with some of the business folks and things seem to be going well in terms of partnerships and season ticket sales. It’s great to see a potential playoff team back here in Charlotte.

Question: What is the prospect of an All-Star game in Charlotte?

Answer: They’ve talked to us about another All-Star game here. The last one was in 1991, right before I started working with the league and I know there’s fond memories of when we were here. The process is for them to apply. We’ve had our events department down here to survey the building and there are some upgrades to the building that are needed. There are some upgrades to the building that are needed. Part of the understanding is to assure the building remains state-of-the-art. There’s nothing dramatic needed, but I’d love to bring the All-Star game back here. It’s a hotbed of basketball and the only thing they have to do is apply.

Q: What’s is the possibility of advertising on game jerseys in the future?

A: It’s something we’ve been talking about for awhile now. We’ve already begun selling ads on WNBA and D-League jersey and, I believe I said last week, I think it’s inevitable that they’ll come into the U.S. leagues. Increasingly, our marketing partners are looking for ways to get closer to the game. Part of the process is our ongoing communication with our television partners and I think they recognize that advertisers may choose to express themselves on jerseys along with ads already in place. We’re in talks with our television partners about extensions and jersey patches are a part of the talks as well.”

Q: Any movement on changing the minimum age to enter the NBA?

A: It is a balancing act and I’ve heard all sides of the issue. I’ve had players say that a young man should have the right to earn a living at 18 and I’ve had others say we’d be a better league with more experienced players. I’m sensitive to both sides of the issue and it’s not something that I could unilaterally change even if I wanted to. It’s an issue that would have to be collectively bargained with our union. Right now, we’ve collectively bargained for one year out of high school and the NFL has collectively bargained for three years out of high school. I think the better balance would be two years out of high school and that’s what we proposed at our last collective bargaining agreement. One of the other factors is that the college community would have to come to the table as well. Eligibility for example, when is the window for a player to apply for the draft, should a player be able to get a sense of when they’ll be drafted and retain their eligibility if he’s not comfortable. There’s issues like insurance that we should focus on. We want to make sure they’re covered for disability and able to go back and receive their college degrees. Another issue is that we say one-and-done players, but in most cases it’s really one semester and done because they’re coming in and retaining their eligibility for one semester and then if the team makes the tournament, they continue playing and once they lose, they prepare for the draft. In an ideal world, four years of college would be appropriate. But I recognize that’s not realistic. There has to be a balance in terms of the economic opportunity and us putting the best product on the floor in the NBA. It’s awfully risky to use your first pick on someone with limited experience in college and, to me, the right balance would be two years. I think that’s the right balance and that’s what our proposal was. We haven’t had an opportunity to get back to those issues. I see both sides and, at the end of the day, one of the things that frustrates me is hearing there’s an economic benefit for us to move the limit from 19 to 20. We pay out the same amount of money every year and there’s the same number of jobs in the league every year. We won’t save any money from increasing from 19 to 20. It requires the college community coming to the table with the players association and the NBA to see if we can have a better balance. It seems like everyone agrees that one-and-done is not the best compromise. I haven’t had any formal discussion with the colleges, but we’ve all been waiting for a new head of the players association. In fairness to the players, I don’t want players to think we’re doing something without them having a seat at the table.

Q: (Former NBA player and current TV analyst) Charles Barkley recently said the quality of the game has suffered. Where do you think the quality of play in the league is right now?

A: The league is in great shape. The level of competition is terrific and I hear directly from fans as well. We’ve had some incredible matchups on the floor this year. Night in and night out, we see a great product on the floor and have some of the best players on the floor that have ever played the game. You look at LeBron (James) and Kevin Durant going back and forth battling for the MVP and some of the displays we’ve seen this year. To me, the game can always get better and we’re constantly looking to tinker the rules. But I’m very satisfied where the league is right now.

Q: How is it to work with Michael Jordan as an owner?

A: It’s a thrill. I was at Duke when Michael was at UNC and I remember watching him in college and, of course, for many of my years in the NBA. He takes that some competition from the court and brings it into the board room. I think it’s been frustrating for him at times because he can’t take over like he could on the court. It’s a process to building a championship team. If he was a player, he’d still be on his rookie contract as a (fourth-year) owner right now. But he’s doing a terrific job. I think he would admit that he’s learning every year. I think the frustrating thing for a lot of our hyper-competitive owners is that it is a zero sum game in terms of wins and losses. There can only be one winner every year and roughly half the teams are going to be winners and half are going to be losers. That’s not easy to accept for a lot of people and I think Michael, even though he doesn’t always wear his frustration, behind the scenes he’s a ferocious fighter. He’s had a major role in our college bargaining process and our revenue sharing discussions. While we don’t have the perfecte system, we put a team like the Bobcats in a position to win a championship and run a profitable business. I think that was the goal and teams should be measured on how they’re managed and not just their market size. While I think we still have work to do, we’ve made a lot of progress and Michael’s doing a great job.

Q: Will you work together so that the rules for college, the NBDL and the NBA are closer together?

A: We’ve had those discussions and I think we should come closer. We’ve had discussions on a common pool for training officials, we’ve looked at the overall rules and I think we could come closer to one set of rules for the game. It is one game and I think there is more we could be doing with the NCAA and, as I said earlier, strong college basketball is critically important to the success of the NBA in the same vein as youth basketball is critically important for the success of the NCAA. It’s something we’ve discussed with FIBA and that is getting closer to one set of rules for the game everywhere.

Q: Any thoughts on changing the current playoff seeding system and/or the number of teams that advance to the playoffs?

A: I’d say I’m happy with the current system, but I’m open with making tweaks. We have a competition committee and I know there’s been some interesting discussion. For example, a possible play-in tournament for the last spot in each conference. That’s something that interests me and I think we should continue to talk about it. There’s been some discussion about re-sedding as we move through the playoffs and I’m not sure whether that makes sense. There’s some logistical issues there. I’ve also learned that, in business, you have to be careful about the law of unintentional consequences. Sometimes, you look to tweak just one rule but it can have widespread unintended impacts. We have our competition committee, so we’re going to continue to look at the format but I’m happy where we’re at right now.

Q: How has the rebranding of this franchise from Bobcats to Hornets gone in your opinion?

A: I was here last year in the spring and came in to talk about lots of issues and no matter what I talked about, people were asking me, ‘When are they going to change the name?’ There was no doubt in my mind that it’s what the community wanted. (Bobcats president and chief operating officer) Fred Whitfield and his folks went through a very deliberate process to get there. And I understand why they did that. I think it’s a great change for the team. People are excited about it around the league and they’re setting all type of merchandise records and I just said in my last meeting I don’t intend on leaving town without a new Charlotte Hornets T-shirt to bring home, so I’m very excited.

Q: Any thoughts on changing the lottery system?

A: It’s not a new issue. We have a lottery to insure that teams aren’t overly incentivized to finish at the bottom in order to get the first draft pick. That was an issue before my time and the NBA is unique in that one player can have such an enormous impact on a franchise’s fortunes so we wanted to make sure we were calibrating incentives appropriately. We’ve tinkered with the lottery over the years to change the odds out of concerns that teams may not have the greatest incentives at any given time to win. We’ll take a fresh look at it again this year. I can’t remember a time in the past when there’s been so much chatter about the lottery and the prospect of teams being in the lottery. I think the problem is coming up with a better system. Some of the proposed ideas seem to take away the very reason why you have a draft. The purpose of the draft is to help the worst performing teams improve by getting the best players coming in. If you make it too random, you’ve taken away the main incentive in having a draft in the first place. The issue has to be that the poorest performing teams have to be there, because of a lack of talent on the floor, not because the players or coaches are part of some strategy. I’ve said this repeatedly, how I define tanking is when coaches or players go out and intentionally try to lose games and I don’t think for a second that’s happening in this league. There’s no doubt that there’s genuine rebuilding going on. It’s gone on since I’ve been in this league. My sense is that these players and these coaches, their jobs depend on winning and they want to go out and win every night. On the other hand, it’s for the league to set appropriate incentives for ownership to put the best possible team on the floor. Having said that, Charlotte is a good example of a team that’s been going through the rebuilding process and part of that process is trading away veteran players to get younger up-and-coming players and draft picks. That’s part of this system. I’m not ready to declare that the system is broken, but I realize it’s something we need to look at after the season.

Q: How do you feel about how Philadelphia is rebuilding?

A: I think for Philadelphia, while they’re engaged in a rebuilding strategy, you don’t like to see any team have to go through a losing streak like they currently are and flirt with the longest losing streak in the history of the NBA. That’s bad for everyone. It’s potentially damaging to the players involved and the culture they’re trying to create. But those decisions are left to management. What I’m watching in Philly goes into the category of rebuilding.

Q: Any concern with Nets ownership in light of what Russian leader Putin has said?

A: We’ve been in touch with the Nets and they haven’t applied to change ownership or shift ownership or anything of that kind. We have our rules on ownership, so nothing has been implicated so far. We have no intent on changing our rules and have our rules in place to protect the league interest in the United States. So I have no concern.

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NBA commissioner Adam Silver came to Monday’s Houston at Charlotte game. Here’s the transcript from his news conference with Charlotte-area media, courtesy the Bobcats Communications Dept.

Silver:

Opening statement: I’m thrilled to be here. I just got down here about an hour ago. I think many of you know I went to college in North Carolina (Duke) and I spent a lot of time down here over the years. It’s great to see this operating on all cylinders. I had a meeting with some of the business folks and things seem to be going well in terms of partnerships and season ticket sales. It’s great to see a potential playoff team back here in Charlotte.

Question: What is the prospect of an All-Star game in Charlotte?

Answer: They’ve talked to us about another All-Star game here. The last one was in 1991, right before I started working with the league and I know there’s fond memories of when we were here. The process is for them to apply. We’ve had our events department down here to survey the building and there are some upgrades to the building that are needed. There are some upgrades to the building that are needed. Part of the understanding is to assure the building remains state-of-the-art. There’s nothing dramatic needed, but I’d love to bring the All-Star game back here. It’s a hotbed of basketball and the only thing they have to do is apply.

Q: What’s is the possibility of advertising on game jerseys in the future?

A: It’s something we’ve been talking about for awhile now. We’ve already begun selling ads on WNBA and D-League jersey and, I believe I said last week, I think it’s inevitable that they’ll come into the U.S. leagues. Increasingly, our marketing partners are looking for ways to get closer to the game. Part of the process is our ongoing communication with our television partners and I think they recognize that advertisers may choose to express themselves on jerseys along with ads already in place. We’re in talks with our television partners about extensions and jersey patches are a part of the talks as well.”

Q: Any movement on changing the minimum age to enter the NBA?

A: It is a balancing act and I’ve heard all sides of the issue. I’ve had players say that a young man should have the right to earn a living at 18 and I’ve had others say we’d be a better league with more experienced players. I’m sensitive to both sides of the issue and it’s not something that I could unilaterally change even if I wanted to. It’s an issue that would have to be collectively bargained with our union. Right now, we’ve collectively bargained for one year out of high school and the NFL has collectively bargained for three years out of high school. I think the better balance would be two years out of high school and that’s what we proposed at our last collective bargaining agreement. One of the other factors is that the college community would have to come to the table as well. Eligibility for example, when is the window for a player to apply for the draft, should a player be able to get a sense of when they’ll be drafted and retain their eligibility if he’s not comfortable. There’s issues like insurance that we should focus on. We want to make sure they’re covered for disability and able to go back and receive their college degrees. Another issue is that we say one-and-done players, but in most cases it’s really one semester and done because they’re coming in and retaining their eligibility for one semester and then if the team makes the tournament, they continue playing and once they lose, they prepare for the draft. In an ideal world, four years of college would be appropriate. But I recognize that’s not realistic. There has to be a balance in terms of the economic opportunity and us putting the best product on the floor in the NBA. It’s awfully risky to use your first pick on someone with limited experience in college and, to me, the right balance would be two years. I think that’s the right balance and that’s what our proposal was. We haven’t had an opportunity to get back to those issues. I see both sides and, at the end of the day, one of the things that frustrates me is hearing there’s an economic benefit for us to move the limit from 19 to 20. We pay out the same amount of money every year and there’s the same number of jobs in the league every year. We won’t save any money from increasing from 19 to 20. It requires the college community coming to the table with the players association and the NBA to see if we can have a better balance. It seems like everyone agrees that one-and-done is not the best compromise. I haven’t had any formal discussion with the colleges, but we’ve all been waiting for a new head of the players association. In fairness to the players, I don’t want players to think we’re doing something without them having a seat at the table.

Q: (Former NBA player and current TV analyst) Charles Barkley recently said the quality of the game has suffered. Where do you think the quality of play in the league is right now?

A: The league is in great shape. The level of competition is terrific and I hear directly from fans as well. We’ve had some incredible matchups on the floor this year. Night in and night out, we see a great product on the floor and have some of the best players on the floor that have ever played the game. You look at LeBron (James) and Kevin Durant going back and forth battling for the MVP and some of the displays we’ve seen this year. To me, the game can always get better and we’re constantly looking to tinker the rules. But I’m very satisfied where the league is right now.

Q: How is it to work with Michael Jordan as an owner?

A: It’s a thrill. I was at Duke when Michael was at UNC and I remember watching him in college and, of course, for many of my years in the NBA. He takes that some competition from the court and brings it into the board room. I think it’s been frustrating for him at times because he can’t take over like he could on the court. It’s a process to building a championship team. If he was a player, he’d still be on his rookie contract as a (fourth-year) owner right now. But he’s doing a terrific job. I think he would admit that he’s learning every year. I think the frustrating thing for a lot of our hyper-competitive owners is that it is a zero sum game in terms of wins and losses. There can only be one winner every year and roughly half the teams are going to be winners and half are going to be losers. That’s not easy to accept for a lot of people and I think Michael, even though he doesn’t always wear his frustration, behind the scenes he’s a ferocious fighter. He’s had a major role in our college bargaining process and our revenue sharing discussions. While we don’t have the perfecte system, we put a team like the Bobcats in a position to win a championship and run a profitable business. I think that was the goal and teams should be measured on how they’re managed and not just their market size. While I think we still have work to do, we’ve made a lot of progress and Michael’s doing a great job.

Q: Will you work together so that the rules for college, the NBDL and the NBA are closer together?

A: We’ve had those discussions and I think we should come closer. We’ve had discussions on a common pool for training officials, we’ve looked at the overall rules and I think we could come closer to one set of rules for the game. It is one game and I think there is more we could be doing with the NCAA and, as I said earlier, strong college basketball is critically important to the success of the NBA in the same vein as youth basketball is critically important for the success of the NCAA. It’s something we’ve discussed with FIBA and that is getting closer to one set of rules for the game everywhere.

Q: Any thoughts on changing the current playoff seeding system and/or the number of teams that advance to the playoffs?

A: I’d say I’m happy with the current system, but I’m open with making tweaks. We have a competition committee and I know there’s been some interesting discussion. For example, a possible play-in tournament for the last spot in each conference. That’s something that interests me and I think we should continue to talk about it. There’s been some discussion about re-sedding as we move through the playoffs and I’m not sure whether that makes sense. There’s some logistical issues there. I’ve also learned that, in business, you have to be careful about the law of unintentional consequences. Sometimes, you look to tweak just one rule but it can have widespread unintended impacts. We have our competition committee, so we’re going to continue to look at the format but I’m happy where we’re at right now.

Q: How has the rebranding of this franchise from Bobcats to Hornets gone in your opinion?

A: I was here last year in the spring and came in to talk about lots of issues and no matter what I talked about, people were asking me, ‘When are they going to change the name?’ There was no doubt in my mind that it’s what the community wanted. (Bobcats president and chief operating officer) Fred Whitfield and his folks went through a very deliberate process to get there. And I understand why they did that. I think it’s a great change for the team. People are excited about it around the league and they’re setting all type of merchandise records and I just said in my last meeting I don’t intend on leaving town without a new Charlotte Hornets T-shirt to bring home, so I’m very excited.

Q: Any thoughts on changing the lottery system?

A: It’s not a new issue. We have a lottery to insure that teams aren’t overly incentivized to finish at the bottom in order to get the first draft pick. That was an issue before my time and the NBA is unique in that one player can have such an enormous impact on a franchise’s fortunes so we wanted to make sure we were calibrating incentives appropriately. We’ve tinkered with the lottery over the years to change the odds out of concerns that teams may not have the greatest incentives at any given time to win. We’ll take a fresh look at it again this year. I can’t remember a time in the past when there’s been so much chatter about the lottery and the prospect of teams being in the lottery. I think the problem is coming up with a better system. Some of the proposed ideas seem to take away the very reason why you have a draft. The purpose of the draft is to help the worst performing teams improve by getting the best players coming in. If you make it too random, you’ve taken away the main incentive in having a draft in the first place. The issue has to be that the poorest performing teams have to be there, because of a lack of talent on the floor, not because the players or coaches are part of some strategy. I’ve said this repeatedly, how I define tanking is when coaches or players go out and intentionally try to lose games and I don’t think for a second that’s happening in this league. There’s no doubt that there’s genuine rebuilding going on. It’s gone on since I’ve been in this league. My sense is that these players and these coaches, their jobs depend on winning and they want to go out and win every night. On the other hand, it’s for the league to set appropriate incentives for ownership to put the best possible team on the floor. Having said that, Charlotte is a good example of a team that’s been going through the rebuilding process and part of that process is trading away veteran players to get younger up-and-coming players and draft picks. That’s part of this system. I’m not ready to declare that the system is broken, but I realize it’s something we need to look at after the season.

Q: How do you feel about how Philadelphia is rebuilding?

A: I think for Philadelphia, while they’re engaged in a rebuilding strategy, you don’t like to see any team have to go through a losing streak like they currently are and flirt with the longest losing streak in the history of the NBA. That’s bad for everyone. It’s potentially damaging to the players involved and the culture they’re trying to create. But those decisions are left to management. What I’m watching in Philly goes into the category of rebuilding.

Q: Any concern with Nets ownership in light of what Russian leader Putin has said?

A: We’ve been in touch with the Nets and they haven’t applied to change ownership or shift ownership or anything of that kind. We have our rules on ownership, so nothing has been implicated so far. We have no intent on changing our rules and have our rules in place to protect the league interest in the United States. So I have no concern.